More Sex Education Insanity [Serge]

Nice post Jay, although this next one will probably do little for your blood pressure. There is truly no limit to this craziness.

I have located the actual testimony to Congress that Max Siegal stated about abstinence only education ruining his life. There are a few more points that I need to make. I will be picking and choosing quotes form his 10 page testimony:

Did the abstinence-only message make me HIV positive? It did not force me to forgo the condom.

Ah, some actual personal responsibility.

But, it did nothing to prevent me from contracting the virus.

Except for instructing you on a course of action that would have made it impossible to for you to contract the virus sexually. However, you are right - it did not overrule your desires or your personal decisions. I'm not sure any educational program can do that.

By the way, what about the 23 year old that you choose to have unprotected sex with? Did he also forgo using the condom because of the inadequate sex education he had while he was in Junior High 10 years ago?

My coach could have told me that gay people had value and that delaying sex could benefit me too.

What did your coach say that implied that gay people had no value? Do you really think it is healthy for us to get our self-esteem and value through a Junior High coach?

He could have told me that I could still take actions toward healthy sexual relations even though I could not get married. He could have talked to me about how essential condoms were to stopping the spread of infection among sexually active people, and he could have taught me how to navigate weighty topics such as emotions, love, and condom use within a relationship. These topics also are absent from abstinence-only programs operating today, which puts thousands of young people across the country at risk for disease and teen pregnancy.

Are you stating that in his discussion about sex between married couples you got the impression that it only applied to married individuals, and since gay couples can't marry it simply did not apply to you? So if a 16 year old girl has sex outside of marraige and she gets pregnant, she could also say that the lessons did not apply to her because she could also not legally be married. Does that make any sense?

Also I believe sexual activity, not inadequate sex ed, is what puts thousands of young persons at risk for disease and teen pregnancy. Unless there is much more going on in those classes that I thought.

It seemed as though I had done something particularly disgraceful, but it never occurred to any of us that I in fact had engaged in fewer behaviors that could put me at risk for HIV infection than the majority of my peers.

Whoa. Wait one minute. Are you saying that the majority of your peers engaged in behaviors that are more risky than unprotected homosexual sex? Really? What gehavior are you talking about?

...and it just goes on and on like this. As I read through this I kept reminding myself that this is the best example of a "victim" of abstinence only sex ed that they could come up with. This is the strongest argument that they can make, and it simply falls apart. The tragedy of young persons who contract STDs from their peers is real, but they must be nuts if they believe this is the correct solution.